Hardware

Army Unveils Major IT Contract Covering Servers, Storage, Network Gear

The hardware component of the Army’s major IT contract, which will carry its technology investment into the next decade, has been awarded.

Phil Goldstein

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Phil Goldstein is a former web editor of the CDW family of tech magazines and a veteran technology journalist. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and their animals: a dog named Brenna, and two cats, Grady and Princess.

As part of a major investment in new IT hardware, the U.S. Army has chosen 17 companies to fulfill a contract worth up to $5 billion over five years. The hardware element is just one piece of a larger push by the Army to invest in new technology, known as Information Technology Enterprise Solutions–3 (the hardware element is known as ITES–3H).

As Washington Technology reported, on Feb. 12 the Army released the final request for proposals for its Information Technology Enterprise Solutions–3 Services (ITES–3S indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) contract. That is a $12.1 billion contract stretching out over potentially nine years and is the software and services counterpart to the hardware contract that was just awarded.

The ITES–3S contracting vehicle will let the Army’s Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) system select vendors to provide enterprise-wide hardware and software, as well as engineering and support services. CHESS oversees the ITES programs.

A New Investment in Hardware

The hardware contract covers commercial hardware and software and related incidental services for the Army, the Defense Department and all other federal clients. The contract, which has an estimated completion date of Feb. 21, 2021, includes a three-year base period, plus two one-year options to extend the period of performance. The Army Contracting Command awarded the firm-fixed-price contract following a competitive bidding process, during which 50 bids were received.

CDW-G, an incumbent vendor on the program, with more than nine years of ITES contract experience, was among the contract winners. CDW-G said it plans to support the Army’s needs for a range of technologies, including “servers, storage systems, networking equipment, workstations, thin clients, desktops, notebooks, network printers, cables, connectors and accessories, video equipment products, uninterruptible power supplies and related services.”

The DOD and civilian agencies, as well as systems integrators, can order under the ITES–3H vehicle to take advantage of economies of scale.

GovConWire reports that the other 16 winners of the ITES–3H contract include a range of large and small enterprises: Affigent, Dell, Dynamic Systems, Force3, GovConnection, Government Acquisitions, Global Technology Resources Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intelligent Decisions, Iron Bow Technologies, MicroTech, Telos, Unicom, Wildflower, and World Wide Technology

Shift in Priorities

The ITES–3H contract fits with the Army’s strategy to consolidate its IT purchases into larger, performance-based “Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity” (ID/IQ) contracts.

Thomas Neff, project director for CHESS, told news site C4ISR that the ITES–3H is a "a journey and not a destination” following legal fights over the contract.

U.S. Army South